The Collected Short Stories: The Necklace + The Piece of String + Boule de Suif + Mademoiselle Fifi + Pierrot + Two Friends + La Maison Tellier + Ghosts and much more (Annotated)

Enriched Edition. French Realist TalesBy Guy de Maupassant

Listen with Sir Michael Caine™ and 1,000+ voices

Try for $0.00 Get for $2

Length87h 26m

About this audiobook

This collection gathers Guy de Maupassant's most celebrated tales, including "The Necklace," "Boule de Suif," "The Piece of String," "Mademoiselle Fifi," "Two Friends," and "La Maison Tellier," revealing the full range of his concise, ironic, and unsentimental art. Set amid provincial towns, Parisian interiors, brothels, battlefields, and peasant communities, these stories exemplify French realism and naturalism while often turning on a devastating moral or psychological reversal. Maupassant's prose is lucid and economical, yet it exposes vanity, hypocrisy, desire, cruelty, and social injustice with remarkable precision. Maupassant (1850–1893), mentored by Gustave Flaubert and shaped by the Franco-Prussian War, wrote from intimate knowledge of bourgeois convention, rural Normandy, and the anxieties of modern life. His experience as a civil servant, journalist, and observer of Parisian society sharpened his eye for class performance and human weakness. The war stories, in particular, reflect both patriotic trauma and skepticism toward public virtue. Readers seeking the foundations of the modern short story will find this volume indispensable. It is especially recommended to those interested in realism, psychological irony, and narratives that compress whole social worlds into a few unforgettable pages. This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience. - A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works' unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions. - The Author Biography highlights personal milestones and literary influences that shape the entire body of writing. - A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader era—social currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation. - A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists. - A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different work's strengths. - Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the author's overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts. - Lastly, our hand‐picked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collection's central themes.

Psychological Satire Betrayal Mystery Crime Political Intrigue Supernatural

Audiobook details

Rating★★★★ 4.4 (2.3K)

Includes Amazon, Goodreads

GenreGeneral Fiction, Literary Classics

Length87 hrs 26 mins

Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices

FormateBook with Audio

Publish dateJul 31, 2017

LanguageEnglish

1The Collected Short Stories: The Necklace + The Piece of String + Boule de Suif + Mademoiselle Fifi + Pierrot + Two Friends + La Maison Tellier + Ghosts and much more (Annotated)

26THE CAKE

2Introduction

27CHÂLI

3Author Biography

28A FAMILY AFFAIR

4Historical Context

29BESIDE SCHOPENHAUER’S CORPSE / THE SMILE OF SCHOPENHAUER

5Synopsis (Selection)

30MISS HARRIET

Show all chapters

6The Collected Short Stories: The Necklace + The Piece of String + Boule de Suif + Mademoiselle Fifi + Pierrot + Two Friends + La Maison Tellier + Ghosts and much more

31LITTLE LOUISE ROQU OR THE CASE OF LOUISE ROQUEE (pt. 1)

7SIMON’S PAPA

32LITTLE LOUISE ROQU OR THE CASE OF LOUISE ROQUEE (pt. 2)

8FATHER MILON

33THE PATRON

9A COUP D’ETAT

34THE STORY OF A FARM GIRL

10THE HORRIBLE

35THE WRECK

11MADAME PARISSE

36THEODULE SABOT’S CONFESSION

12MADEMOISELLE FIFI